The Assault Course
by redheadleela
Summary: Erm.. I hate summaries! My explanation of Sara's obsesive dedication to cases which include assault on women. Enjoy! Anf feedback greatly appreciated!


The Assault Course  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or Jorja and George wouldn't have been fired! Author note: Hey, this story is based one year in the future and Nick and Sara are dating (the others know about them as well) Enjoy! All feedback greatly appreciated! Plus I have been away for a week so if the situation with Jorja and George has changed could someone tell me?  
  
The CSI assault course was never that challenging but was just a simple way to drive day shift and graveyard further apart.  
Unfortunately, this year something happened that none of the graveyard team would ever forget.  
The assault course had all the standard equipment, but it was at the tyre dodge that the first problem arose. Sara was running full belt convinced that day shift weren't going to win. She tripped on the last tyre and went flying through the air. She hit the floor hard! She landed awkwardly on her jaw and her right wrist.  
"Sara!" Nick, Warrick and Catherine ran across to her as she lay still. She lay there, remembering.  
Her mind drifted back to the time just over 5 years ago, back to when it had happened.  
He was chasing her, "Come here bitch!"  
She hid round the corner panting for breath; he was going to catch her.  
"Sara? Saaara?" The man who held authority over the now trembling brunette in both career and in spirit.  
She saw him closing in on her and turned to start running but the floor was wet. She slipped and fell hard. She landed badly on her right wrist and on her jaw. She lay winded. He grabbed her shoulder and flipped her over.  
She lay there, not even bothering to hide the fear in her eyes. He straddled her frozen form and sat on her legs. She was trapped. He reached down towards her face. He stroked away a stray lock of hair and a stream of tears that were now trickling down her face.  
He let his hands slide down her face and onto her neck. She felt the pressure on her neck and the buzzing begin in her head. He was strangling her! She couldn't breathe. Sara struggled against him but she could feel her strength flowing from her body. As she felt herself slipping away she thought, 'At least it's over now.'  
The next thing she felt was a sharp sting to the already sore right side of her face. Her eyes snap open and look directly into his dark cold eyes as the whole process started again.  
The memory of this torture flooded through her mind and she remembered the tenth and final time and the pain flooded to her wrist and jaw.  
"Sara? Honey are you alright?" Nick bent down and tenderly touched her face. Like he had. She pushed herself up and fell back down as her wrist gave way. Nick and Warrick helped her up.  
"Er... Yeah I'm f-f-fine. I think."  
Catherine looked up at the stuttered word and realised she had never heard Sara stutter, ever. "Sure?" an abrupt nod from Sara, "Okay, let's go then!"  
The team ran off and at every obstacle, Catherine noticed that Sara winced whenever she put weight on her right wrist. This didn't present a problem until the rope swing, which happened to be over a big pool of mud.  
Nick, Warrick and Catherine had made it across safely but as Sara swung (and therefore putting a lot of weight on her damaged wrist). She felt faint with the pain and she let go. Splat!  
"Damn! You are really not having a good day, are you?"  
"Yuck! Let's just finish the damn course!" She stood up and her left ankle collapsed beneath her.  
Warrick and Nick picked her up each arm and carried her to the finish line. Grissom came running, "Sara? Are you okay?"  
"Who, me? I'm fine Griss! I just fancied a cheap mud bath!"  
"No need for sarcasm!" Nick tapped her on the nose, she pulled away again, "Let's go get you looked at."  
Nick and Warrick helped her over to the Tahoe and sat her in the back seat. Nick looked tenderly as he gently lifted her wrist and ankle and realised they were swelling up.  
"Cath will you go and get some clean clothes for Sara and Warrick can you go and get my first aid kit out of my car?"  
Grissom looked uncomfortable and mumbled that he would go and find some ice packs. A few moments of awkward silence fell. This was extremely unusual for Nick and Sara as even when they had just been friends they had always found something to talk about.  
"Sara? Are you okay?" The worried Texan looked into her eyes and noticed they were glazed and had lost their sparkle.  
"Erm... Yeah it's just my ankle and my wrist. And my jaw."  
"Er ouch, but that's not what I meant."  
"I know." Sara ducked her head to avoid the questioning glance that Nick was giving her.  
Catherine arrived with some clean clothes and looked from Sara to Nick and back again.  
"Nick? Do you want to... or should I?" Cath didn't want to offend either of them and could sense some friction that wasn't usually there.  
"Cath could you help me change? Please?" Sara's voice was small and seemed far away as she avoided Nick's gaze.  
"Sure." Cath looked questioningly at Nick. He just shrugged and walked away. After Sara was changed, Nick and Warrick bandaged her wrist and ankle. Nick drove her home that night in a very quiet car.  
The next day at work Grissom sat in his office and thought over Sara's strange behaviour yesterday. It just seemed so out of character. He was disturbed from his musings as Sara limped past his door. He made a quick mental note not to give her a solo case, as she mightn't be able to manage.  
"Sara!" He thought he had better ask her about this idea as he had gotten it wrong so many times before. However, despite his call she just limped past.  
'In her own little world!' He thought to himself and allowed a small smile to appear on his face.  
Sara sat in the locker room and shuddered at the memories that had resurfaced since yesterday. She mentally shook herself. This was stupid, it had happened over five years ago. Anyway, if she let this haunt her then Grissom would make her take a vacation and she couldn't have that. Nick walked in the room and sat down next to her. She smiled at him and thought 'My best move is to concentrate on the present and forget the past.' "Hey!"  
"Hey sweetie! How's the ankle?"  
"It's healing well." They started making out and Nick let his mouth slide down to her neck. He placed his hand on the back and continued kissing her on the side of her elegant neck.  
She screamed, pushed him away, jumped off the bench and fell into a crumpled heap on the floor near Warrick's locker. Nick sat on the bench looking startled and extremely confused  
"Sara?" She tried to shuffle further away from him, found she couldn't and started crying.  
Nick sprinted from the room. Sara needed help and it couldn't come from him. 'Where are Cath and Warrick when you need them?!' He sprinted from room to room but it was about thirty minutes before shift was due to start and they had yet to arrive.  
He ran out of the break room and into Grissom.  
"Whoa! Where's the fire Nick? If you run around like that Sara won't be the only one injured!" Grissom saw that Nick was barely listening to him and was hopping from foot to foot. However, when Grissom had said Sara's name he had regained Nick's attention, "What's happened?"  
"It's...it's..." Nick hesitated, as he really didn't think Sara would want Grissom seeing her like this, but he didn't really have a choice. "It's Sara! She just completely freaked out!"  
An incomprehensible expression passed over Grissom's face. "Show me." As they ran back to the locker room, Grissom asked a question that Nick did not want to answer. "What happened?"  
"We were just sitting on the bench together. We talked a little and we were kissing. Then she freaked out."  
"Be more specific!"  
Nick pulled a face, and then a thought flashed across his synapses, 'Grissom needed to know what set her off!' "Erm... we talked about her ankle. She said it was healing."  
"Anything else? When you were kissing her, did you touch her or do anything unusual?"  
Nick pulled another face. This was getting very freaky, "Not that I can th... I touched her neck. Does that help?" The question had been routed in the fact that Grissom had mumbled something that sounded like 'Bingo!' Grissom didn't answer as they had reached the locker room.  
"Sara?" She sat rocking, in a state of complete fear. She was unable to separate memories from the present. Her mind was flickering between the two so as Nick approached she screamed. 'He's come back for me!'  
"Nick! Out!" Grissom realised that Nick was the source of her misplaced fear.  
"But, Griss!" Nick looked mortally offended.  
"Go! Just go and get her a glass of water but don't come back in until I say so!"  
"Okay." Nick sullenly agreed and left, thinking 'I hope Grissom knows what he's doing.'  
"Sara?" Grissom walked towards her. Her beautiful eyes were blank. He wrapped his arms around her in a protective fashion and lifted her onto the bench. He tenderly wrapped her in a blanket, as he did he had his own flashback.  
"Norman pushed. Norman jumped. Norman fell."  
"Wouldn't you if you were married to Mrs Roper?"  
"I don't even have to turn around. Sara Sidle." He turned and smiled at her. But that was a cover for the frown he wore underneath. It was a very bright day, even for Vegas. The sun was high in the sky blazing away. So what were those shadows? He looked again as they carried on the conversation. She seemed happy and well, yet not all the cover-up makeup in the world would have hidden those bruises. The bright sunlight gave her away, but he let it lie. But now it rose to the surface again.  
"Sara?"  
"He hurt me Doctor Grissom."  
Grissom sat stunned. 'Nick had hurt her? How could he...? Hang on; she had just called him Doctor Grissom!'  
"Who hurt you, Sara?"  
She looked around in a nervous manner, though she didn't really see the room. "My boss." She started shaking.  
"But I'm your boss." Grissom was extremely confused, and then it hit him. Sara thought that she was still working in San Francisco. But that meant...  
"You have a beard!"  
Grissom smiled slightly, "Yes I do. Sara, do you know where you are?"  
She looked around startled, "Oh. Yeah... Oh no! Where's Nick?"  
"He's just outside the door." He studied her face, then looked deep into her eyes, "What happened?"  
"I got Nick confused with someone from my past, who had attacked me. I kinda freaked out, huh?"  
"Just a bit. Shall I call Nick in?"  
"In a minute. Can I ask you something first?"  
"Fire away."  
"When I first came to Vegas, did you notice any bruises on me?"  
Grissom considered and decided that the truth wasn't appropriate, "No, should I have?"  
"No. Cover-up makeup is amazing."  
"Oh and Sara? You remember your boss from San Francisco CSI?" He saw her visibly shudder," I don't think you really kept in touch with anyone from that lab but, he was fired." He watched her face light up, "Apparently someone filed a complaint and he was fired because of it." A small smile appeared on her face. Nick and Sara made up and life went on as normal. Apart from when Sara took a bite out of a tough apple and tears would form in her eyes. Nick would always see, and would come across and hug her.  
Fin 


End file.
